Author's Note: I'd like to thank you all so much for not lashing out at me for last chapter's cliffhanger. I am grateful for your kindness and civility not only because I've been going through a low point in my mental health (not because of a miscarriage, I don't impose myself onto characters that much) but also because I've been in the situation before where a plot twist in one of my stories garnered hatred and contempt towards me as the author.

I don't think I could handle such contempt being thrown my way again and I just wanted you all to know how much I appreciate your understanding that it's just one plot point of a large story. I can't thank you enough for only reacting to it and questioning it. Your support means a lot to me and although I can't blame you for leaving this story because it's not what you thought it would be, I want to thank you nonetheless. I promise that everything in this story has been planned and that the plot point revealed last chapter was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. I promise your questions will be answered if you stay and I promise a happy ending if you can stick with me through all the middle.

Thank you again,

-fatefulfaerie

It was like lava, the way it bubbled and popped, boiled red, hot and scolding. It rose, cascading and cascading, like any anger, building upon itself, pressurized and tempered to burst. Link's heavy breaths were like a volcano ready to explode, his fists balling, reddening and whitening.

With a shaky frustration, he looked at the back of his hand, his fingers tensing at the sight of two triangles.

He shook his head with quick jolts as his hand lowered to his side, Link absolutely shaking with anger.

"Link…" Groose tried with a step forward.

There was a reason why Groose didn't want to be the one to tell him. In the hypothetical scenario that Link woke up, which they had taken to discussing ever since the miscarriage occurred, he never knew what he would say.

Obviously, Groose never learned since then.

Link turned around and bursted through the doors to the outside, Groose releasing a sigh and following him.

His hand was on a wall, as if braced against it with a bowed head and his other hand in his face. Link's shoulders were shaking, cluing Groose into the fact that he was likely crying.

Groose didn't know what to say, so he just stood behind Link with a bowed head. He and everybody else had so much time to mourn and yet Link had been pushed right into it. The sadness Groose was feeling even now, just being reminded of the experience, was surely nothing to Link's.

"Link, I…" Groose started. "I know you're feeling a lot of things right now…I've felt them too. Nothing, I'm sure, to what you're feeling now…I can't even imagine."

He took a cautious step forward.

"Just don't blame yourself for what happened," Groose entreated. "It's not your fault. We tried everything we could, it…was out of anyone's control."

There was a sniffle in the silence that followed, Groose figuring Link wouldn't reply.

"No," Link said, to Groose's surprise. "I don't blame myself for that, for the mih…"

His words faltered when he tried to say it.

"For what you said," he relayed instead, turning his head slightly. "I blame myself for not being there."

"Link, no," Groose said with slow shakes of his head. "You can't—"

"She was in pain, Groose!" Link yelled as he stood up completely, facing Groose. "Deep, deep pain! I know you know! I know you were there, you must have been! I can see it in your eyes and I can't thank you enough for that. But I wasn't! I wasn't there!"

"I promised," he said his voice breaking. "I promised her…from the very beginning I promised I would be there for her."

Another resurgence of tears followed as Link clamped his eyes, averting his gaze.

He walked off to the clearing, Groose following silently.

Link whistled for his Loftwing and mounted it, but he didn't fly off. His head was bowed as Groose approached.

"I failed her," Link said solemnly.

Groose crossed his arms. Him and Zelda really were meant for each other, the way they blamed themselves for the others' suffering. He had just gotten months of Zelda blaming herself and now, he supposed, it was Link's turn.

Not that Zelda had stopped.

"No, you didn't," Groose said. "The Triforce is safe and secure in the Sacred Realm, right? You did what you set out to do?"

Link nodded.

"Okay then, see?" Groose asked rhetorically. "Success. You didn't fail anyone."

Link didn't respond, no affirmation, no agreement as Groose whistled for his own Loftwing.

"So this is what she meant," Link said, the sadness ingrained in his voice.

"Who?"

"The six months that passed," Link said. "It was nothing in that realm and Farore hinted at why. I didn't understand at the time, but…it's easier not to get involved in our lives, attached to our well-being and their potential power in it if it flies by right before them. I was there for less than an hour, but more time and years could have passed. For them, I suppose just one day is decades upon each other. From her perspective, I'm long dead and Hyrule is in a different age entirely. I suppose I should be thankful that it was only six months."

"Are you?" Groose asked. His Loftwing was waiting patiently, but he hadn't mounted it, listening to, studying Link with concern.

"No," Link said in reply. "I'm not."

Groose nodded silently, mounting his Loftwing.

"I don't think I ever could be thankful," Link continued. "Those six months…I once joked at our youth, saying that we had so much time before us that I wasn't worried about losing it."

Link paused.

"I should have been."